Making it Monday-Cutie Bottle Stoppers

AND GIVE AWAY. **Read Below and enter for a chance to get one of these goodies for yourself!

Cutie Bottle Stoppers

My fingers have been so busy...busy stitching, cutting, sewing, cooking and crafting that I forgot to take pictures of all the gifts I have made for all the lovelies in my life.  I did remember to take photos of this project and have made a semi-tutorial for these wine bottle stoppers.  I already gave most of these away at our Hannukah bingo party and they were a big hit.

First, I bought the cabinet pulls at my local craft shop and used Gesso (a base sealer) to cover the natural wood color.  I placed skewers in the small hole at the bottom of the cabinet pulls and placed them into a florist foam block, which I did not unwrap...I remembered that these can get crumbly and didn't want those little green pieces all over the floor, where the dog or baby could eat them!  I liked how they were standing up like this so I could paint them without any smudges and finger marks.

 

I bought the wooden people at A Child's Dream Come True. I really love this store.  They have such a great selection and they ship super fast too! 

 

I used a clear sealer for the people so that the face would stay a natural color--and I didn't have to try to mix a skin color.

These are the bases that I chose.  I wanted to use cork, like Cindy did at Skip to My Lou but I could only

find several corks at my local hardware store and NONE at the craft shop.  I did find these cuties at my local wine shop.  It turns out I like them better than cork, since they have shiny tops and they won't fall  apart with repeated use like cork might.  The wooden pulls and people were glued on the top using my hot glue gun, which worked great!

I then mixed tempra paints to paint the bottle toppers.  I only painted the hair and faces of the people, as I used origami paper for the body of the people (except for the santa and the guy in the tie which were done in felt).  I really like the metallic colored paint, I even used it for some of the hair. After the paint was dry, I sealed the tops with 3 coats of Mod Podge (gotta love this stuff), which gave them a nice shine.  

There you have it...good gifts all.

***People Bottle Stopper GIVEAWAY**** SIMPLY MAKE A COMMENT AND FOLLOW ME 

(I AM A NEWBIE AND WISH TO GET SOME FOLLOWERS!) Winner will be picked at random on 12/25/10 Christmas Day at 6 PM Hawaii time.  Please leave an email contact in your comment or a way I can reach you.

Each thing you do gets you an entry-for a possible of 2 entries per person.  On 12/27/10 will send the winner, via USPS one of these cuties.  Good luck and thank you for checking it out!  Happy, healthy and safe holidays!

Give AWAY! Get it while it's hot.

Can you believe this?  Get on board people.

TodaysMama and GameStop are giving Santa a run for his money this year with a pile of presents that any family could love and I'm sharing this meme with you.  Our Wish List Grand Prize includes:

One XBox 360 250 GB with Kinect

One Nintendo Red Wii Bundle

Three Nintendo Red DSi XL Bundles

Plus, a ONE THOUSAND DOLLAR GameStop gift certificate so you can fill those stockings with games and accessories.

You may want to serve some earplugs with your hot cocoa on Christmas morning to protect your precious hearing from the shrieks of joy from your family.

Entering this contest is easy and fun. Just answer and post the meme below on your blog or as a Facebook note and add your link below.

To participate you must include all of the text, including the links, in bold below:

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to:http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family? Peace, love, health and happiness- always.

2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition? Sing songs, play with our new games/toys and just be together, having fun.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? This may sound boring, boring, boring===but time alone in my house to get stuff done- like several days in a row to  read books, watch movies, craft and organize.

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money? Playing games, taking walks on the beach and gathering "treasures" in nature with my kids, hanging out with friends and family.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up? Tons of Monopoly, the card game Spit with my sister and gin rummy with my dad, uncles and cousins.

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood? Having at least one holiday party, where we get together and make food, play games and have a great time.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip? I would like to go somewhere that has a beautiful Christmas blanket of snow.  We live in a warm climate and I am grateful for this everyday.  However, I would like my kids to experience the magic of waking up to snow, the quiet and beauty of the white over the leafless branches and twigs, the fun of bundling up- sledding down hills, making snowmen, having snowball fights, skiing, ice skating and then savoring the coziness and warmth of a fire, soup, and cocoa.  These are the memories of my childhood winters and I would very much like to share those kinds of times with my kids during a holiday---perhaps in Upper Michigan, Upstate New York, Vermont--any ideas out there?

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? Oh, so many things:  X box 360 4 GB console with Kinect of course, this will be so much fun to play with friends and family.  Just dance kids, Dance Central for Kinect, Kinect Joy Ride and Kinectimals will keep us all entertained.  Also, I like the Wii Fit Plus game, Wii Sports Resort with motion plus, a Universal Dance Pad and the Wii Sports Pack.  There is so much more, but I'm leaving it at this, for now!

BUT WAIT. Did you think we were done? Oh, you must not know us at all.

We have another stockpile of gifts from GameStop that you can enter to win with our extra entry options.

• Runner Up #1 will receive a XBox 360 250 GB with Kinect and a $250 GameStop gift card.
• Runner Up #2 will receive a Nintendo Red DSi XL Bundle and a $250 GameStop gift card.
• Runner Up #3 will receive a Nintendo Red Wii Bundle and a $250 GameStop gift card. 

Visit TodaysMama for your chance at this great prize.

Lots to do...posting wasn't one of the things I've done lately

Summer is all about the kids.  Staying home with them, playing outside, creating and just having fun.  Here are a few pictures of the crafts we have been up to lately

Even Mr. Gnome came over for a bite.

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Some delicious Playdoh creations.  They look so yummy.

Check out the pie, the girl put a surprise in the middle.

Then it was Father's Day and we made some wrapping paper for the grand-dad, dad and uncle---the print on the paper for the tie is a map of the US and we chose the parts that had the states that those people were from, or lived in at one time.

Then, we had a big bash for the 4th of July and made scene of a cutie family enjoying a cook-out and bonfire, exactly what we did.
They sure look like that are having a great time, huh?

Hope you guys are enjoying your summer as much as we are.  More crafty things to come.

DADDY-O

Happy Birthday Dad!  Hope you have a fabulous year!  I made this Kindle case yesterday- based on the pattern found here.  I chose a vintage fabric that I LOVE and also added his initial on the top of the case.  The letter "L" is a fun one to make.

This is the vintage Lion Fabric that I just love.  I plan to make some other stuff from it soon.  I am thinking of selling some as well.  I have about 4 yards.  Anyone interested?  It is a 1960's canvas cutie.

I will add more pics when my dad places his Kindle inside and gives a big *sigh* Now he can read in comfort and style.


To make the inserts so the case stands up, I used the back of a drawing paper pad.  The same one 3 of my 4 beauties just finished using the last pages to make drawings for their sweet granddad. The very same one getting this case. Way to reuse, Jewels!

Hubba Bubba asked why we didn't make him anything...remember dear, patience is a virtue.

Apron Crazy

Hello out there!
I have been so busy making these aprons for my kids school fund raising event.  I got a little carried away- can you tell?  But, I had so much fun it was worth it!
Here is the kids apron.

This is the child size apron.















I followed the pattern by Montessori By Hand- now found here.  I just love this pattern.  It is written so clearly and I followed it just as written (except for the applique, which was my design).  I recycled fabric by using clothing donated by each child in the class.  They gave me items that were stained and could no longer be used, but the fabric was cute or had an interesting texture. Some of the fabrics were from my stash- I was so happy to have an excuse to use some fabric---this just gives me an excuse to get more..heeheehee and there are so many great fabrics out there; especially now with Spoonflower! 

My favorite is the little gnome in the tire swing.  His beard is made from an old washcloth.  My son's teacher calls him Moinalee (sp?) I think this is a European term for gnome.  Does anyone know?

Check out the fairy behind the mushroom.  She is a little subtle (I wanted her to be more obvious).  I like her shoe, don't you?

This is a photo of the backside of the apron- with my slightly off attempt at embroidering a label- see the messy green and red area on the left? Thanks to the tutorial from futuregirl- I still need some practice making these.

See the adult apron now- using the Retro Apron Pattern bought here

See the pattern?  I followed the one on the right.  I sure had a tough time with the bias tape- maybe because I used denim and it was so thick.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here is the dog checking out my handiwork.  I think she likes it.
I like how the gnome is peeking out from the tree and the owl hidden in the tree.  This was a fun project.

Again, thanks to futuregirl.  Please advise the best way to get rid of the pesky paper. I had a super hard time with this and hence, had to leave some on there.   You can hardly see it, the photo is not great- it's a wonder I even left it on there- it says "Made with Love by Mama J. Pea Bee (that's me!).  Happy weekend everyone.

FIRST THINGS-FIRST

Hello world.  Anyone out there?  This is my first attempt at blogging.  Please let me know you came for a visit.
I have been so inspired by the wonderful creativity of many bloggers out there-thank you.  It has inspired me to get busy making some items and to see the potential in things all around me.

Here is an attempt to link to some sites and to attach pictures of what I have been up to these last few days.  If you have suggestions of ways I can do this better, please share!

Trinket Keeper Tutorial by Amazing Mae -She is awesome!  I made these for my daughters party this weekend.

I found lots of funny pictures of Chihuahuas (which are my girls favorite kind of dog) and printed them on the fabric (using the freezer paper ironed to muslin)

 Then I made the bags, just like it shows in the tut- the only changes were the sizes- as these varied depending on the size of the pictures.  I also put a picture and the child's name in a cool font on each side- but I covered up the names (for privacy, of course!)

Each child got a different photo per size- based on their individual personalities and filled them with take home treasures.  I also made these for the ladies that helped out at the party- thanks gals!  (I made 14 in total). Thanks Dana for this awesome tutorial.


NEXT the birthday girl must have a crown and she did- thanks to the tutorial from lovely lady at Juicy Bits.

                        
Here is the tutorial for her glorious felt birthday crown.  I added some fabulous chihuahuas with wigs to keep the theme alive.  The sweet birthday girl loved it.  Thanks so much for this great idea and pattern!